The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has a £450m maintenance backlog on its 6,500 overseas properties that could take a decade to fix, the National Audit Office has said.
A just-published report from the public-spending watchdog says FCDO has prioritised addressing immediate health and safety risks in recent years at the expense of longer-term prevention work to improve its estate or reduce costs.
The NAO said that FCDO’s recent annual spend of around £50m on reactive maintenance work suggested that it could take 10 years to clear the £450m backlog identified – assuming no further maintenance needs emerge.
The report says that around one in seven of FCDO’s buildings, which are located at 282 posts around the world, fail to meet the department’s “target” condition score, based on Cabinet Office metrics.
FCDO’s overseas estate includes embassies, high commissions, consulates, offices, official residences and staff accommodation. In addition to diplomatic staff, the estate – which is valued at £2.5bn – hosts more than 35 other UK government departments, devolved administrations, and other bodies.
According to Managing FCDO’s overseas estate, 933 of FCDO’s overseas properties fall below the required standards for structures to be sound, operationally safe and exhibiting “only minor deterioration”.
The NAO said that the poor condition of FCDO’s non-UK estate reduced its resilience and capability to respond to events, and had the potential to affect the productivity and health of staff.
The watchdog said that a survey of sentiment at overseas posts found 26% of respondents reporting major concerns over health and safety and 19% with major concerns that building conditions are having a negative impact on productivity.
It also found “poor and incomplete data” and “gaps in capacity and capability”. Managing FCDO’s overseas estate said that in November 2023 the department had reported that 85% of its posts either did not have an asset register with a record of building components and physical assets, or that the register was incomplete.
The £450m maintenance backlog figure only emerged from professional surveys subsequently commissioned on 97 posts identified as “most at risk” as part of the FMR24 exercise. FCDO’s previous estimate of the maintenance backlog had been £150m.
The NAO report concludes that much of FCDO’s overseas estate is “in a poor and deteriorating condition” and that the department’s reactive approach to repairs and maintenance has compromised the long-term value for money of spending.
The report notes that over the past 15 years FCDO has funded its overseas estate capital and maintenance projects by selling £1.47bn worth of property. Principally from the sale of sites in Bangkok and Tokyo. However it adds that the lack of further assets of a similar value to sell mean the approach is “no longer sustainable”.
“FCDO now needs to work with HMT to take decisions about what it can realistically afford. It must find ways to identify efficiencies, reduce costs, adapt its estates portfolio, or accept the decline in condition of its overseas estate,” it says.
Managing FCDO’s overseas estate acknowledges FCDO has taken steps to improve its property management. But it adds that the introduction of facilities-management contracts in some regions has had “mixed results”, and points to the need to develop a coherent strategy and delivery plan setting out how it will achieve its future estate needs.
Among its recommendations, the report urges FCDO to “consider options such as co-locating posts with other diplomatic missions, reducing the number of posts and leasing properties”.
NAO head Gareth Davies said FCDO needed to build on recent work to better understand the state of its overseas property holdings and make proper plans for the future.
“FCDO’s overseas estate helps to deliver UK government objectives and support UK diplomatic efforts around the world,” he said. “But much of the overseas estate is in poor condition, and there are significant challenges in maintaining it.
“FCDO has made some improvements, but it needs to do more to achieve value for money from its overseas estate.”
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, said FCDO remained “in a reactive position” and is creating longer-term risks through lack of preventative investment.
“In 2010, the committee reported that information on the overseas estate was incomplete, inaccurate and out-of-date, much of which still rings true today,“ he said.
“FCDO will need to address the insufficiencies in its data alongside lack of capacity and skills to effectively manage the estate and reduce costs.”
Other recommendations from the NAO include a call for FCDO to review its new Estates, Security and Network Directorate, to evaluate whether it is achieving its intended benefits, and the production of an estates workforce plan, to identify skills gaps and ways to close them.
An FCDO spokesperson said: “The FCDO’s overseas estate provides the platform for the UK government to deliver its plan for change internationally. We must ensure it is fit for the future to deliver maximum security and growth for the British people.
“We accept the National Audit Office’s findings about managing our overseas estate and have already taken several actions to prioritise urgent work. We have also started a delivery plan that will allow us to address their recommendations.”
This story was updated at 15:05 on 23 May 2025 to include an FCDO response